Alexander Mller in the podcast: That says the SK Gaming CEO

In “Behind The Screens” – the podcast on digitization – Panos Meyer, Managing Director of the Hamburg-based digital agency Cellular, speaks with people who deal with the challenges of digitization in different positions and responsibilities on a daily basis. Today’s guest: Alexander Mller, CEO of the e-sports team SK Gaming.

Traditional brands believe in e-sports

The term e-sports refers to the competition between two or more players via computer, console or mobile device according to established rules. The games come from a variety of genres – such as sports, strategy or racing.

SK Gaming is Germany’s most successful e-sports team and recently posted headlines when it became known that both Mercedes-Benz and 1.FC Kln are the main shareholders.

Alexander Mller: “Conservative feedback helps”

The e-sport itself has been booming for years and is always reaching new dimensions. This applies both to the number of spectators, as well as for the prize money of professionals. Conservative instances still smile at this sport. They doubt whether e-sports are really sports.

Alexander Mller has become accustomed to such statements: “Conservative feedback from the outside is always good, because we are in a bubble and it helps to be awakened.” For 20 years, there is the team SK Gaming. Mller took over the management in 2009.

The youth has built the E-Sport itself

Industry surveys show that e-sports sales will reach $ 1.65 billion by 2021. There are also more than half a billion regular viewers.

When asked where the boom is coming from, Alexander Mller says: “Youth has been looking for a different kind of entertainment. The youth has built the e-sport itself. “For in the largest e-sports titles, it was initially the community that has reprogrammed the games competitive.

The whole thing was fueled by the technical ability as players to send content via YouTube and Twitch to a broad mass – regardless of the classic TV.

That is also the reason why today many big brands go into e-sports. They reach the target group – male, 15 to 35 years, higher education and higher income – no longer through other channels.

Over 380 million people before the livestream

The numbers speak for themselves: the ESL One event alone attracts 15,000 people a year to the Cologne Lanxess Arena. Over 380 million people watched the final of the League of Legends World Cup 2018 via live stream. China exclusive.

“A better promotion than through e-sports, you can not get,” comments Alexander Mller this development. By comparison, the US Super Bowl – after all, the largest sporting event in the world – saw 800 million people last year.

But how do you find the entry into e-sports as a brand? What are the plans of Mercedes-Benz as shareholder? And why was the wake-up moment for Alexander Mller the day Amazon bought the Twitch streaming service for $ 1 billion?

This and more is explained by Alexander Mller in the new podcast episode of Behind The Screens, which you can listen to on Soundcloud, iTunes or Spotify directly and for free.

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